"In order to form a more "perfect" footprint..................."

[Byron haugh]

Hi,

Joking here, but I am trying to select a fly pattern with a better footprint on the water. No one seemed to like the Water Walker style fly for this purpose. So, I'm focusing on a thorax style fly.
Which pattern do you think produces the better footprint?

Thanks,
Byron

[AlanB]

I don't know about how good the "footprint" is but I have had times on the river when a fly dressed like the one in your photo caught but one tied using the exact same materials in parachute style didn't. Probably only 1/16" in difference in the way it sits on the water made the fish reject the fly. I could see them come to the parachute and inspect it. They wouldn't take it. Change back to the thorax and caught the same fish.
Cheers,
A.

[rainbowchaser]

Rather than clipping the hackle you might try this http://www.flyanglersonline.com/flyt...w/3298fotw.php

[Byron haugh]

Yes, Deeana (sp?) {Lady Fisher} reminded me of that one. Will see how it compares - in the bowl of water test against the clipped thorax style. If I get a good photo of the two of them on water, I will post it.
Byron

[ScottP]

Byron,

Don't know if their footprint is better, but I do know the thorax style is a heck of a lot easier to tie and it catches fish for me. My favorite mayfly pattern is Barr's viz-a-dun:



I usually tie with a biot body to speed things up even more.

Regards,
Scott

[Byron haugh]

Scott,
Tried a thorax style. Thought the hackle was to be sparse and X wrapped? I notice my "wing" fibers are too sparse and don't stand out enough.
Anyway, would this work for a comparison of footprint on water in a plastic bowl?
Thanks,
Byron

[DG]

I actually liked your other fly, but down this path lies madness, or the recreation of a mayfly with 6 legs touching the water, which is where sparse hackle and that thorax tie come in. As long as that big nasty steel hook hangs down there, and tippet hangs off the front and touches the water, the footprint is going to be less than perfect.

[Byron haugh]

DG
I used to tie the upside down "funnel fly" pattern. That does eliminate the hanging hook................

[pittendrigh]

Been thinking about the premise of this thread.
The answer is obvious. Somewhat like the emperor's new dry fly.

There is no perfect footprint. Or perhaps it's more accurate to say there are many.
If you stand in the Spring Creek during a thick hatch--perhaps Pale Morning Duns in July, for instance at O'Hair's south of Livingston, MT--and if you watch the fish, rather than fish, you will see the fish take any and all arriving dimples. Some are drowned and spent wing. Some have wings upright but are still half trapped in the shuck. Some are on their sides, struggling vigorously. Some have one wing up and the other crumpled stuck to the body. Some dimples are drifting nymphs with wing cases barely split. The fish take them all--all the real ones anyway. Sometimes two fish will race each other to next arriving dimple.

Any and all flies that are approximately the right size and color are as good as any other. If a fish refuses your Sparkle Dun. Switch to a no-hackle or an emerger or to a spent wing. Changing pattern (to any other pattern) as a response to a refusal is what any experienced spring creek guide will tell you to do. That's what they told me when I first started working at the Yellowstone Angler. I heard that from everybody I worked with: Deanna's nephew Tom, from John Green, Paul Rice, Rick Smith, Chuck Tuschmidt, Randy Berry, Rick Smith. Brandt Oswald. Bob Auger. George too for that matter. All of them. It doesn't mean you can't have a few favorite patterns. But you do have to be willing to give up on them periodically. A wide variety of simple patterns in your box is more powerful than a smaller number of complex ones.